Alexander Hamilton

Founding Father, Treasury

Early Modern influential 113 sayings

Sayings by Alexander Hamilton

The United States should be a great manufacturing as well as a great agricultural country.

1791 — Report on Manufactures
Controversial Unverifiable

The acquisition of wealth, property, and reputation, is the engine of all industry and enterprise.

1787 — Federalist No. 12
Controversial Unverifiable

It is a truth, which has been taught by the experience of all ages, that the people are too apt to be led astray by the arts of popular demagogues.

1788 — Federalist No. 71
Controversial Unverifiable

The public good is the sole object of government.

1788 — Federalist No. 70
Controversial Unverifiable

The greatest danger to the United States, is from the disunion of the States.

1787 — Federalist No. 1
Controversial Unverifiable

The people are too apt to be led astray by the arts of popular demagogues.

1788 — Federalist No. 71
Controversial Unverifiable

The necessity of a vigorous, energetic government is not a new doctrine.

1787 — Federalist No. 1
Controversial Unverifiable

The true danger to America is the spirit of faction and disunion.

1787 — Federalist No. 9
Controversial Unverifiable

The power of the purse should be in the hands of the national government.

1787 — Federalist No. 30
Controversial Unverifiable

It is a principle of liberty that the people have a right to choose the form of government under which they will live.

1787 — Federalist No. 22
Controversial Unverifiable

The only security against faction and insurrection, is in a firm, energetic government.

1787 — Federalist No. 9
Controversial Unverifiable

The accumulation of debt is the natural disease of all governments.

1787 — Federalist No. 30
Controversial Unverifiable

The idea of an independent executive is a dangerous one.

1787 — Speech at the Constitutional Convention (arguing against a weak executive)
Controversial Unverifiable

I am not for a government that is so strong as to be dangerous to liberty.

1787 — Speech at the Constitutional Convention
Controversial Unverifiable

The safety of the people is the supreme law.

1787 — Federalist No. 23
Controversial Unverifiable

A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.

1787 — Federalist No. 1
Controversial Unverifiable

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.

1787 — Speech at the Constitutional Convention
Controversial Unverifiable

It is of great importance that the people should be informed of the true state of their affairs.

1787 — Federalist No. 30
Controversial Unverifiable

I have been in this country a little too long to be deceived by the cry of liberty.

1799 — Letter to James McHenry
Humorous Unverifiable

Take away from a man his good name, and you take away his identity.

c. 1790s — Reported by James McHenry, though exact source is debated
Humorous Unverifiable